VNV Nation had played another fabulous tour in North America, unlike many of the tour before were the focus had been classic hits like “Chrome”, this tour was the Empire/Automatic Tour. For those people who are not aware, this tour focused solely on songs from those albums. Ronan, who had made many jokes through out the night, had pointed this out and as a guide told the audience each and every song name so that no one felt as if they were not apart of the concert; because they had wanted to see more of their well known hits. However for many of the die-hard fans, hearing “Standing” or “Legion” was one of those moments of great happiness because they are songs that are not played to often. Although each album was not played in its full, the band had put the set list in a great order as to not only incorporate the key songs from each album but also allowed them to flow together seamless without it seeming choppy or like they were trying to compensate for the lack of popular hits.
I have seen now VNV Nation 3 times, and I must say that Ronan was by far more chatty and interactive in this venue rather than in the Mayan (Los Angeles). I enjoyed that he relentless pointed out fans that were using their camera with a flash on it or even telling fans that if they point their phones in front of other people’s face he will throw the phone. I agree with him, people live behind their phones to much as oppose to watching the show and allowing for Ronan’s vocals to immerse the audience and for that 2 hours, being apart of the music rather then apart of some piece of shit phone. It was nice that he was trying to take people out of the world for that short period of time, bringing them into his world where he made it a welcoming enviroment.
Ronan, as well as the band members put on a fantastic show. I know that he had said that the Vegas show did not go as well as he would have liked it too, but this show hopefully more than made up for the lack of energy from the audiences before. It seemed to me, that not only were the band very much into what they were playing, but the people in the audience were happy to be apart of the albums that were being played, even if they did not know the songs, Ronan did not leave them behind. Aside from the Goth girl hitting her fan in my sisters face, and mine the show was the best I have seen from them. Perhaps it was the smaller venue, the freedom of playing songs from albums that rarely get played, or what have you, but this was a show to have seen.
